Melanoma researchers in Melbourne, Australia have gained new insights into how skin cancer cells use glucose, a discovery which they hope will help drug makers build new classes of medicines.

Based a the Peter MacCallum Centre, the scientists used detailed cancer imaging techniques during treatment with cutting edge BRAF inhibitor drugs to observe how some cancer cells continued living even after glucose supply had been stopped. "We previously thought the reduction in glucose uptake by melanoma was a result of cell death caused by cancer treatments," said the centre's director of cancer imaging, Professor Rod Hicks."We have now found most cells actually die as a result of being starved of glucose, while a small number manage to find a way to survive."

The findings have been published in the American journal Cancer Discovery.

"This vulnerable stage, when melanoma cells are overcoming their sugar addiction, presents an attractive target for new treatments. We're investigating combination therapies to eradicate cancer cells that are managing to survive, even when their fuel source is cut off," explained the head of cancer therapeutics at the centre, Professor Grant McArthur. He said research efforts would now focus on the genetic changes that allowed melanomas to survive blocked glucose use.Professor Michael Eccles, Otago University's director of developmental genetics and a melanoma researcher, said the findings explain "how deregulated glucose metabolism in the cancer cells is tightly linked into melanoma biology"."[This] also helps to explain why almost half of melanomas have a BRAF mutation," the professor said."Knowing this gives us an insight into the vulnerabilities of melanoma that will eventually guide an improvement in melanoma treatment."

The head of cancer therapeutics at the centre, Professor Grant McArthur, said research efforts would now focus on the genetic changes that allowed melanomas to survive blocked glucose use.